Abstract
This paper deals with the scope and limits of legal measures to curb domestic violence against women in India. The Indian state has enacted several laws in the past to address the issue and recently a new comprehensive law is added to the list. The new law has become an alternative to many urban victims. Yet, a review of the performance of the old and new laws on domestic violence proves that legal measures to curb domestic violence have serious limitations. They could neither guarantee any reduction in the extent of such violence, nor could they expedite the justice delivery system in India. Much remains to be done to ensure gender justice in a patriarchal society. Discussion here is based on secondary data and supplemented by field data collected through qualitative research informed by feminist epistemology in the district of Burdwan, West Bengal.
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Notes
The implementation of PWDVA has really begun from the date of its notification on 26th October 2006.
Girija Vyas, chairperson of the National Commission for Women, said this while commenting on the progress made so for in implementing the new law.
The first case was registered on 27th November 2007. Initially 5–6 cases were reported a month. But within six months, the figure doubled to 10–12 cases. Now nearly 20 cases are filed a month.
81344 cases of ‘cruelty’ cases are filed in the country in 2008, but the new domestic violence act is yet to attain such popularity.
The CJM of Burdwan has argued that the time frame should be 60 ‘working days’ and not just 60 days. It has also been observed that the judges often express their anguish to register a case within a very short period of time.
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The authors acknowledge the helpful contributions of several participants of this research including staff of DSW office, the anonymous reviewers and the editorial board of Journal of Family Violence in writing this paper.
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Ghosh, B., Choudhuri, T. Legal Protection Against Domestic Violence in India: Scope and Limitations. J Fam Viol 26, 319–330 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-011-9369-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-011-9369-1